Page 30 of Knot in My Wildest Dreams: Part 2
And the world will learn to never, ever underestimate a beta.
Chapter 29
Sterling
It was partway through the morning when we found it. The video that would help, at least partially, to take Gideon down. I wasn’t sure why he kept the video, except that he must have been a sadistic monster. It was proof of what he’d done to Arnault. What would have been done to me, had I betrayed him.
And yet, it still could happen. I had no doubts about the depths of Gideon’s depravity, and if he had any idea of what was going on, he’d send the same man who sat there beating Arnault in the video after me and anyone else who was a threat. But this was proof.
Vigo and Liam were working on a plan as we spoke. They were going to call Dante and let him know we’d found something on Gideon. It was only a little bit, but it was something.
And not a moment too soon. Gideon had been asking me to come into the office, and I was running out of excuses to stall from going in. At the same time, I wanted to know what he was planning. Would he and Elijah release the documents against Celeste on their own? Was he suspicious of her being gone for so long? I needed to know his plan.
Either way, we needed to get this proof in front of the people who mattered - the people left on the board who weren’t secretly working with Gideon, and eventually the press.
Chapter 30
Dante
Elijah leaned over the table, eyes scanning the lines of text as fast as his mind could process them. The light from the desk lamp caught the hard planes of his face, and I could tell he was barely sleeping. His fingers drummed against the edge of the folder, the only outward sign of his agitation.
“These contracts…” he muttered, flipping to another set of papers, “if they’re real, Celeste is in deeper than even I would have thought.”
I kept my eyes on the documents in front of me, but my focus wasn’t on his words. It was on him - Elijah, my anchor in more storms than I could count. The man who’d hauled me out of bed after my mother’s funeral, who’d forced food into my hands when I would have gone days without it. The man who sat onthe floor outside the shower door, talking about nothing, just so I wouldn’t feel like I was drowning in my own head.
When Celeste said he was working with her uncle, I had a flicker of uncertainty. He’d been missing a lot during those months she lived with us, and she seemed so certain. But my doubt in Elijah seems laughable now. As I watched him go through the files, so damn determined, I realized I’d been a fool for ever second-guessing him. He was relentless in the way he looked through the documents, a model worker. But I couldn’t tell him what I knew, not yet.
He glanced up at me, his eyes curious. “Heard from Celeste yet?”
I shook my head, keeping my expression easy, unbothered. “No. She just ran off and took a spa week. Figures.” The lie slid out smoothly.
“So, when are you going to release these? You have all that you need.” He asked, looking concerned at my lack of action.
“Oh, we’re gathering a list of journalists. I want to come at her from all angles.” I replied, another lie. I hated that I had to do this. Elijah couldn’t possibly go behind my back - could he? I’d been wavering back and forth trying to find the truth. We’d already kept so much from him, about Celeste being our scent match, and some of the documents looking as if they were forged. I wished I could be honest with him, get his opinion. But I’d already lied to my pack about my involvement in the Darlington Ball Plan. And Celeste was right - Elijah had been the one to pitch that idea, and the blackmail plan, to us.
I watched him, wondering if there was any sign I missed. Was he really working against us? We paid him handsomely. He’d been loyal to us, especially to me, for years. But I knew he always wanted to be part of a pack. Especially ours. But it never felt right. Would that be enough for him to want to take power from us?
As he went back to scanning the papers, I let my mind drift back to Arkala, the voice I’d heard stating Celeste’s orders. And the documents I couldn’t bear to look at again, implicating her. How much I’d been sure she was behind everything, only to have my whole world turned upside down in a few months of her being around me.
And those feelings faded into the background as my eyes fell to a photograph clipped to one of the files. Celeste was caught mid-laugh in a candid photo, her hair loose around her shoulders, the faintest crinkle at the corner of her eyes. Something in my chest tightened, sharp and relentless.
I’d told myself I would find the truth, even if it implicated her. But the truth was, she’d carved herself into me. Even now, with suspicion hanging over her like a dark cloud, a part of me still craved her. She was the first real thing I’d had in years, and losing her had been like stepping back into the ruins of Arkala.
I didn’t know what to believe. The documents painted her as complicit, maybe even dangerous, but my gut… my gut told me she wasn’t the enemy here. Gideon had to be behind it. Hell, the man dripped ambition like poison, and I wouldn’t put any level of betrayal past him. But Elijah? No. Elijah wasn’t capable ofthat kind of rot. He might be ruthless, but not with the people he considered his own.
The phone rang, and I saw that it was Liam. I answered it, stepping away.
“Yeah?” I asked, my stomach churning with whatever he had to say.
“You alone? We found something.” He said, and I moved further, out of earshot of Elijah.
“Hold on.” I went outside. “What? What is it?” I gripped the phone, my heart beating fast. Whatever he said next would change the course of my life, for better or worse.
“It’s not much, but it’s a start. We have a video. It doesn’t show Gideon’s face, but it’s definitely his voice. It’s pretty bad…” he started, and I clenched my teeth.
“And?” I asked, feeling simultaneously impatient and wishing I didn’t have to hear what came next.
“It’s a film of them beating Arnault. Gideon mocks him over wanting to tell Celeste the truth. By the end… it’s pretty clear Arnault is no longer with us. He’s been out of the picture for some time.” I nearly dropped the phone.
